Shattered Ascension Rulebook - v39_2022-??-??
By Cyrusa
Email for feedback: cyrusa+ti3 (at) crans.org
This rulebook is a work in progress, and an attempt at providing Shattered Ascension players all the rules they need so that they do not have to read from 3 different rulebooks, the TI3 FAQ and the SA change-list. The design goals were to be as concise, consistent and precise as possible.
During the writing, some changes were made to clear ambiguities and clean up rules, that will be debated and progressively included in the SA ruleset or removed from this rulebook. These changes are indicated in comments such as this one.To get a url pointing to a specific part of this rulebook (to give to a friend for example), hover over a title and click on the link icon that will pop up on its left, then copy the new url of the webpage. This also works for internal links, simply click on them and copy the new url of the webpage.
Notes
Contradictions
If a wording would contradict with another (for example saying you can do something that another wording prevents), then either it explicitly refers to the other wording it is contradicting with, in which case it takes precedence, or it does not, in which case the default precedence order is:
Action Cards > Political Cards > Racial Upgrade > Racial Abilities > Technologies > Rules from this rulebook
Compliance
A player subject to negative effects (for example discard 3 Trade Goods) must fulfil them as far as able (if she only has 2 Trade Goods, she must discard them).
Dice
Unless explicitly stated otherwise, all dice mentioned in this rulebook are 10-sided dice going from 1 to 10.
Overview
In a game of Twilight Imperium, 2 to 8 players take the role of varied great races fighting for supremacy in the galaxy after the ruling Lazax Empire has fallen. The game is played over several Rounds, during which players strive to claim Objectives in order to score Victory Points. The first player to reach a predetermined number of Victory Points is declared the winner and the new Empress of the Galaxy.
Content
- Components
- Setup
- Round
- Space Battle
- Invasion Combat
- Systems
- Planets
- Other Board Elements
- Spending Resources And Influence
- Command Counters
- Action Cards
- Twilight Council and Political Cards
- Technologies
- Racial Upgrades
- Trade Goods
- Trade Contracts and Trade Agreements
- Components Limitations
- Units
- Leaders
- Surrender And Elimination
- Miscellaneous Rules
- General Definitions
- Rule Adjustments Based On The Number Of Players
- Annex 1: Domain Counters Effects
- Annex 2: Variants and Optional Rules
Components
Setup
Note: players may sit now, but will likely have to change seat later during the setup.
Setup Sequence
- Building the Galaxy
- Table Setup
- Victory Point Goal
- Game Options
- Secret Objectives
- Race Picking
- Home System Location Bidding OR Galaxy Building
- Seating Reorganisation
- Speaker Token Bidding
- Starting Trade Goods Normalisation
- Orienting the Rotation Cycler
- Revealing Objectives
- Finalising Setup
1) Building the Galaxy
Choose either:
- Choose and build a pre-set map from Shattered Ascension Map Database. Recommended
- Decide to have the player build the map following the Star by Star procedure. In this case, the map will be built at step 6.
2) Table Setup
Find an area of the table that is convenient for all players to reach. Designate this space the common play area, and populate it with the following:
- Shuffled Action Cards deck
- Shuffled Political Cards deck
- Ground Force and Fighter tokens
- Trade Goods tokens
- Planet Cards deck
- The Strategy Cards from number 1 to 8. Add in the 9th if there are 4, 7 or 8 players.
- Shuffled deck of Stage I Public Objectives
- Shuffle deck of Stage II Public Objectives
- Shuffled deck of Preliminary Objectives
- Shuffled deck of Secret Objectives
- The Special Objective Cards
- The Victory Point track
- The Technology Tree
Inside this common play area, designate a space that will be used as the Twilight Council.
3) Victory Point Goal
Decide on the number of Victory Points required to win. The recommended values are:
- 8 Victory Points for 2-player games
- 10 Victory Points for normal games
- 12 Victory Points for a normal game with one more round. Some prefer it because it provides a real late-game stage. Recommended
- 14 Victory Points for epic (long) games
4) Game Options
Decide on the game options to include:
- Path of Fate (Race-Specific Objectives)
- Simultaneous Action System
- Ascendancy (essentially doubles the Victory Point goal and makes objectives claimable multiple times)
Recommended: None.
5) Secret Objectives
Deal two Secret Objective cards to each player. They will have to discard one of them later.
6) Race Picking
- Have each player roll a die. The highest-rolling player (break ties by additional rolls) is the first player.
- Starting with the first player and going clockwise, each player may either choose any available race to play or pass. The remaining races form the pool of random races.
- All players without a race are secretly dealt a random race from the pool. They may either keep it, or reshuffle it into the pool (without revealing it).
- Conduct the above step a second time.
- All player without a race are publicly dealt a random race from the pool, that they must play for this game.
7) Home System Location Bidding OR Galaxy Building
Note: The Trade Goods that are bid at this step are taken from the reserve, not from the players.
Pre-Set Map
If you chose a pre-set map, then players will now bid on the Home System location they wish to start on.
The first player places a flag (or another item if her race is not public) along with a bid of Trade Goods (0 is allowed) on any Home System Location. Then, going clockwise (and looping), each player not currently holding a bid on a Home System either places a bid on a new Home System or overbid another player. This continues until all players hold a bid on a Home System location.
All players then receive as many Trade Goods as the difference between the highest bid and their own bid.
Star by Star Map
If you chose to build the map using the Star by Star procedure, now is the time to do it.
Players may now change seat in order to be aligned with their Home System location.
8) Seating Reorganisation (Only for non-Online games)
Players may change seat in order to be aligned with their Home System location.
9) Speaker Token Bidding
Note: The Trade Goods that are bid at this step are taken from the reserve, not from the players.
The player on the right of the first player places a bid of Trade Goods (0 is allowed) on the Speaker Token. Then, going counter-clockwise (and looping), each player may either withdraw from the bidding or overbid. The winner gains the Speaker Token. The other players receive as many Trade Goods as the winning bid.
10) Starting Trade Goods Normalization
All players now gain or lose the same number of Trade Goods such that the player with the lowest amount has exactly 1 Trade Good.
11) Orienting the Rotation Cycler
The player holding the Speaker Token may now set the orientation of the Rotation Cycler as she wishes.
12) Revealing Objectives
Reveal:
- All Special Objectives
- 3 random Stage I Public Objectives
- 1 random Preliminary Objective
- 3 random Stage II Public Objectives
13) Finalising Setup
- Each player reshuffles one of her Secret Objective back into the deck.
- Each player draws 2 Political Cards
- Reveal hidden races
- Each player chooses a set of plastic miniatures and takes her race’s Command Counters. She places them near her race sheet to form her “reinforcements”.
- Each player takes the other assets of her race:
- Flags
- Flagship card
- Trade Contracts
- Racial Upgrades
- Leaders
- Planet Cards of her race’s Home System planets
- Each player places a Flag on the zero of the Victory Point Track.
- Each player places Flags on the technology tree besides her starting technologies (indicated on her race sheet).
- Each player places her starting units and Leaders (indicated on her race sheet) in her Home System. ground units and installations may be placed on any planet in it. Leaders may be placed on any ship or planet in it.
- Each player places Command Counters from her reinforcements onto her race sheet as follows:
- 2 in Strategy Allocation (with the race’s symbol side up)
- 3 in Command Pool (with the race’s symbol side up)
- 3 in Fleet Supply (with the ship silhouette side up)
14) Play!
Start the first Round.
Round
Shattered Ascension is played over a consecutive number of Rounds. Each Round is split into three phases: The Strategy Phase where players place a Political Card in the Twilight Council as their agenda and pick their Strategy Card for the Round, the Action Phase, where players use their Strategy Cards, move their ships, conquer planets and build units, and the Status Phase, where the board is cleaned up and players can gain Victory Points by claiming Objectives. If no player is declared winner at the end of a Round, another Round starts.
Strategy Phase
Strategy Phase sequence:
1) Agenda
Each player must place face down a Political Card from her hand in the Twilight Council, and mark it with one of her flags. Political Cards placed in the Twilight Council zone in this manner are called Agendas. If the Assembly Strategy Card is played this round, the Agendas to be voted on will be chosen among these cards.
After all players have placed their Agenda, they are revealed and the game goes on.
Additional rules:
- At any time during this step, players may discard two Political Cards from their hand to draw another Political Card. They may do so as many times as they want.
- Instead of placing a card from their hand, players may place the first card of the Political Cards deck, without looking at it.
2) Strategy Card Picking
In rotation order, each player must pick one of the available Strategy Cards (that was not already picked by another player). They will be able to use them during the upcoming Action Phase. All the 9 Strategy Cards are available on our website.
After that, place a Bonus Counter on each of the unpicked Strategy Cards. These Bonus Counters stack from one Round to the next, and increase the value of the Strategy Cards they are on: when a player picks a Strategy Card, she converts each Bonus Counter on it into either a Command Counter or a Trade Goods that she adds to her race sheet.
Action Phase
For those coming from Twilight Imperium 3, there is no Transfer Action in Shattered Ascension. If you cannot live without it, you can look into the Simultaneous Tactical Action System game option.
Content:
During the Action Phase, each player will take an Action, that can be either a Strategic Action, a Tactical Action, or Passing. The order in which players can take their Action is given by their initiative, the player with the lowest initiative being the first to take an Action.
This sequence (each player taking an Action) is repeated until all players have Passed, at which point the Action Phase ends and the Status Phase begins.
Initiative
The initiative of a player is the number printed on her Strategy Card.
Active Player
A player currently taking an Action is called the active player.
“as an action”
Some effects in the game are used “as an action”. This means that using such effects is done instead of taking an Action during the Action Phase.
Strategic Action
A Strategic Action corresponds to playing a Strategy Card. When a player performs a Strategic Action, she executes the Primary Ability of her Strategy Card, then other players, following the order defined by the Rotation Cycler (starting with either the left or right neighbour of the active player, depending on the orientation of the Rotation Cycler), may choose to execute the Secondary Ability of the card.
After that the used Strategy Card is flipped on its inactive side, and may not be used again this Round.
Important: When performing a Strategic Action, the active player may not execute the Secondary Ability of the Strategy Card she is playing.
Passing
A player performs this action when she does not want to perform any other action for the rest of this Action Phase. When it would be the turn of a player that passed, simply skip her. If all players have passed, the Action Phase ends and the Status Phase starts.
Important: A player may not pass before having used her Strategy Card through a Strategic Action.
Note: A player that passed may still execute the Secondary Abilities of Strategy Cards played after she passed.
Tactical Action
All the ship movements, planetary conquests, unit productions and much more will happen during Tactical Actions.
After declaring a Tactical Action, a player must follow the steps of the Activation Sequence described below. With the exception of the first one, each of these steps is only resolved if necessary.
In this section “you” refers to the active player.
- System Activation
- Movement
- Space Cannons Abilities
- Space Battle
- Planetary Landings
- Invasion Combats
- Production
Activated System
A System is considered activated by a player when it contains a Command Counter from that player, preventing her units in it from acting again until the Command Counter is removed. However, most effects simply refer to activated and unactivated Systems without specifying any player, in which case the player is the one using the effect.
Allegiances
From the perspective of a given player:
- Friendly units and planets are those she controls.
- Enemy units and planets are those that are controlled by other players.
- Neutral units and planets are those that are not controlled by any player.
Most effects using these terms do not specify which player they use the perspective of. In these cases, the player is the one using the effect.
1) System Activation
Activate a System by placing a Command Counter from the Command Pool area of your Race Sheet in it. This system is now the active System for the rest of this Tactical Action.
You may not activate a System that already contains one of your Command Counters, but you can activate a System that contains Command Counters of other players.
In fact, as a general rule, you can ignore Command Counters belonging to other players on the galaxy.
2) Movement
The ships movement step consists in two parts:
A) Plotting Trajectories
You may not move ships present in activated Systems, unless they are in the active System. For each ship you want to move, you have to plot a legal trajectory for it. A legal trajectory is a chain of adjacent Systems starting with the System containing the ship and ending with the active System. It must also satisfy the following conditions:
- No System of the trajectory (except the active System) may contain enemy ships. (e.g. ships may not move through Systems containing enemy ships)
- The ship must have a sufficient movement value to follow the trajectory. By default, moving from a System to an adjacent System costs 1 movement. For example, a ship with a movement value of 1 can only move in adjacent Systems.
Notes:
- A ship does not need to take the shortest trajectory towards its final destination.
- Trajectories that start and end in the active System without leaving it are allowed, and constitute a movement.
B) Executing movements
One by one and in the order of your choice, move each ship according to their trajectory.
3) Space Cannons Abilities
During this step, units with the Space Cannon (n) ability that are in the active System may fire at a fleet in the active System. There are two possibilities:
- If the unit does not belong to the active player, it can only fire at a fleet belonging to the active player in the active System.
- If the unit belongs to the active player, it can fire at any fleet in the active System (except the active player’s own fleet).
Starting with the active player and following the rotation cycler, players may in turn shoot with some or all of their units with Space Cannon
When a unit with Space Cannon (n) fires, it performs n combat rolls. Hits must be assigned to ships of the targeted fleet by the fleet’s owner.
4) Space Battle
At this step, if there are ships controlled by two different players in the active System, a Space Battle must be resolved.
In this Space Battle, the active player is the attacker, while the other player is the defender. For complete rules about how to resolve a Space Battle, see the Space Battle section.
5) Planetary Landings
The Planetary Landings step consists in two parts:
A) Planetary landings
The active player may land ground units, PDSs and Leaders currently carried by her ships in the active System on planets in the same System. PDSs and Leaders landing on non-friendly planets must be accompanied by at least one ground unit.
B) Bombardment assignment
The active player may assign some of her ships in the active System with the Bombardment ability to the non-friendly planets of this System, in order to be able to bombard them during the 6) Invasion Combats step of this Tactical Action.
Definition: An Invasion is a planetary landing on either a neutral or enemy planet.
6) Invasion Combat
Until all planets that had units or Leaders landed on them or ships assigned to bombard them in the active System have been resolved, the active player chooses an unresolved planet and resolves it according to the following:
Note: In what follows, “landed” ground units, PDSs and Leaders refer to the ground units, PDSs and Leaders that were landed on the planet being resolved.
Planetary Landing Resolution:
- If the planet is friendly:
No bombardment occur. - If the planet is neutral:
The active player must resolve the Domain Counters present on the planet (if there are any). No bombardment occur (unless a Domain Counter triggers an Invasion Combat). If there are still landed ground units after resolving the Domain Counters, the active player takes control of the planet, exhausted, else, the defender destroys all landed PDSs and makes a Fate Roll for each landed Leader. - If the planet is enemy and contains at least one enemy ground unit or PDS:
If ground units were landed, resolve an Invasion Combat on this planet, else the ships assigned to this planet bombard it without an Invasion Combat taking place. - If the planet is enemy and does not contain any enemy ground unit or PDS:
The ships assigned to this planet bombard it. If ground units were landed, the active player destroys the installations on the planet and takes control of it, exhausted.
7) Production
Note: All the resources that the active player decides to spend during this step are added up and spent at the same time at the end of the step. The total amount of resources that must be spent is rounded up.
The Production step consists in three parts, that must be resolved in the following order:
A) Deploy Space Mines
See the Deploy Space Mines ability.
B) Produce units
The active player may produce units at each of her units with the Produce Units (n) ability in the active System, with a production capacity of n. In most cases, units will be produced by Space Docks.
Producing units
When producing units, any combination of units may be produced provided the following three limitations are respected and they can be placed in the System (see placing produced units):
- Production Capacity: Each unit has a production capacity cost, the total production capacity cost of the produced units may not exceed the production capacity of the unit producing them.
- Resource Cost: Each unit has a resource cost. The player producing units must spend the required amount of resources. If multiple units produce units at the same time, the resource costs can be summed up and paid at the same time.
- Blockade:
No ships may be produced in a System already containing enemy ships.
Placing produced units
After units have been produced, they must be placed according to the following rules. The producer refers to the unit that produced them:
- Ships are placed in the space of the System containing the producer
- If the producer is on a planet (or is a planet in some cases), then all produced units with the Planet-based trait (ground units and PDSs) must be placed on the planet. Else, they may be distributed in the System among friendly planets and friendly units with sufficient capacity to carry them.
Space Docks
Space Docks cannot be produced using the Produce Units (n) ability. They have their own specific construction process (see step C just after).
C) Build Space Docks
The active player may build Space Docks on some of the planets in the active System. A Space Dock may only be built on a planet that she has controlled since the beginning of the Round, and that does not already contain a Space Dock. Newly built Space Docks are placed exhausted (flipped) and may thus not produce units until they are refreshed (usually during the Status Phase).
Status Phase
Change from base SA (click to expand)
Added a dedicated "Scuttle units and break Trade Agreements" step near the end of the sequence. The scuttle unit part is there so that this option visually appear in the Status Phase sequence. As for the Trade Agreement part, the reasoning is as follows: In the base SA, Trade Agreements could be broken at any time during the Status Phase. But it was annoying and a bit immersion breaking to see people breaking low value Trade Agreements to get 1 Trade Good and buy a racial upgrades. That is why I created this dedicated Status Phase step, located after the Racial Upgrades unlocks.After the Strategy Phase and the Action Phase comes the Status Phase. During this phase, players claim objectives granting them Victory Points, unlock Racial Upgrades, and more generally “clean up the table” and prepare the game for the next Round.
Status Phase sequence:
- Claim Objectives
- Progression Feedback
- Produce Trade Goods (2:1)
- Unlock Racial Upgrades
- Refresh Planets
- Receive 1 Action Card, 1 Political Card and 2 Command Counters
- Reallocate Command Counters and Fleet Supply Upkeep
- Scuttle units and break Trade Agreements
- Unactivate Systems, repair units, return agendas and Strategy Cards, refresh Space Docks
1) Claim Objectives
During this step, players simultaneously claim objectives to gain Victory Points. After this is done, the game ends if one or more players possess enough Victory Points (see winning the game).
Claiming an Objective
In order to claim an objective, a player must satisfy the requirements written on it, and not have already claimed it in the past (whether other players have already claimed it or not does not matter). The player then places one of her flags on the objective, and advances her flag on the Victory Point Track by the number of Victory Points indicated on the objective.
Claiming Limit
During a Claim Objectives step, a player:
- May claim:
- At most 1 revealed Public Objective, either from Stage I or Stage II
- At most 1 Secret Objective from her hand
- The Preliminary Objective (if it is still claimable)
- Must claim:
- All Special Objectives she qualifies for
Types of objectives
Stage I Public Objectives (Yellow)
The standard type of objective.
Stage II Public Objectives (Blue)
Stage II Public Ob
jectives are harder Objectives that grant more Victory Points than Stage I ones. However, a player may only claim a Stage II Public Objective if the number of revealed Stage I Public Objectives is equal to or higher than the number of Victory Point required to win the game.
Preliminary Objectives (Grey)
At the end of a Round in which a Preliminary Objective has been claimed by at least one player, it becomes unclaimable by all other players for the rest of the game.
Secret Objectives (Red)
When claiming a Secret Objective, a player must reveal it and show she indeed meets its requirements. If she does not meet them, the Secret Objective is discarded. If she does, it is placed with the other objective cards as a reminder.
In addition, players may reveal their Secret Objective at any time to discard it.
Special Objectives (Green)
There are three kinds of Special Objectives:
- The Artifact Objectives award Victory Points to the players controlling some of the four Artifacts.
- Sovereign and Imperial award Victory Points to the players controlling respectively more than 8 and 12 planets outside their Home Systems.
- Voice of the Council awards a Victory Point to the player that was elected Voice of the Council during the Twilight Council.
Special Objectives differ from the other kinds of objective in that if a player that has claimed one of them stop meeting its requirements, her claim on the Special Objective is lost instantly: she must remove her flag from the objective card and loses the associated Victory Points immediately. This does not prevent her from claiming this objective again later in the game.
Note: Losing Victory Points
Regardless of effects that would make players lose Victory Points, a player may not have less Victory Points than the number of Special Objectives she currently claims. Players may not have less Victory points than 0.
Winning the game
After all players have finished claiming objectives, if at least one of them has the required amount of Victory Point (or more) that was decided at the start of the game, the game ends.
Whoever has the most Victory Points at that time is declared winner. If two or more players have the same number of Victory Points, ties are broken in favour of the one controlling the most planets outside of her Home System. If there is still a tie, tied players share the victory.
After a victory, you can read this text out loud:
“She has gained the power needed to claim the for too long empty Imperial Throne of Mecatol Rex. The Winnaran Custodians will step aside for their new Empress, whose destiny is to lead the galaxy to a new age of prosperity, peace and enlightenment.”
Note: It is possible for a player to win the game outside of the Status Phase (some effects grant Victory Points during the Action Phase). If a player reaches the required amount of Victory Points at any time outside of the Status Phase, the game ends immediately and a victor is determined following the same procedure as above.
2) Progression Feedback to Victory Point Leader
The player with the most Victory Points gains as many Trade Goods as her lead in Victory Points lead over the player with the second-most Victory Points.
3) Produce Trade Goods (2:1)
Starting with the Speaker and following the Rotation Cycler, each player may spend resources to receive one Trade Good for each two resources spent.
4) Unlock Racial Upgrades
Starting with the Speaker and following the Rotation Cycler, each player may now unlock some of her Racial Upgrades by spending resources.
The cost of unlocking a Racial Upgrades is computed as follows:
- Base cost (printed on the card)
- - Victory Points (owned by the player)
- + Base costs of the other Racial Upgrades the player has already unlocked
Multiple Racial Upgrades can be unlocked at the same time, but they must be unlocked one after the other.
5) Refresh Planets
Starting with the Speaker, and following the Rotation Cycler, each player refreshes her planets, by turning the corresponding planet cards upright.
At this step, players may choose not to refresh some of their planets to instead do one of the following:
- Build a Facility on the planet, provided it is neither a Home System planet nor a Trade Station, and does not already contain a Facility.
- Use the refresh ability of the planet, if it has one.
6) Receive 1 Action Card, 1 Political Card and 2 Command Counters
Starting with the Speaker and following the Rotation Cycler, each player draws one Action Card, one Political Card, and receives two Command Counters.
7) Reallocate Command Counters and Fleet Supply Upkeep
Reallocate Command Counters
Starting with the Speaker and following the Rotation Cycler, each player may redistribute her Command Counters between the Command Pool, Fleet Supply and Strategy Allocation areas of her race sheet.
Fleet Supply Upkeep
Players must pay 1 resource for each Command Counter in their Fleet Supply beyond 8. Command Counters that are not paid for are lost. For example, a player with 10 Command Counter in her Fleet Supply must pay 2 resources.
8) Scuttle units and break Trade Agreements
Starting with the Speaker and following the Rotation Cycler, players may scuttle some of their units on the board by placing them in reinforcements.
9) Unactivate Systems, repair units, return agendas and Strategy Cards, refresh Space Docks
- Remove the Command Counters on the board and placed them back in reinforcements.
- Repair units with used Sustain Damage abilities.
- Players that have Agendas (Political Cards) left in the Twilight Council take them back in their hand
- Return the Strategy Cards to the common play area.
- Refresh Space Docks (by flipping them upright).
The end of the Status Phase marks the end of the Round. If no player has won the game yet, a new Round begins.
Space Battle
This section details how to resolve Space Battles. Space Battles are ships versus ships engagements that occur when a player moves ships into a system containing enemy ships. The player that moved ships is the attacker, while the other player is the defender.
A Space Battle consists of a Pre-Combat phase, followed by a succession of Combat Rounds that continues as long as both players have ships in the System the Space Battle takes place in.
Space Battle sequence:
- Pre-Combat
- Space Battle Combat Round (repeat until the Space Battle ends)
Here are a few definitions that will be used in the following:
Combat Roll :
The act of rolling a die and checking if its result is greater or equal to a unit’s combat value. If it is, a hit is scored by the owner of the unit.
Assigning a hit :
When her opponent scores a hit during a Space Battle or Invasion Combat, a player must assign it to one of her units involved in the Space Battle or Invasion Combat (she chooses which unit), if able. Each unit may only be assigned at most one hit, and doing so destroys the unit.
Hits scored by the opponent that were not ignored or cancelled are said to be inflicted by the opponent, even if they cannot be assigned (for example if more hits than the number of units present were scored).
End of a Space Battle:
If before a Combat Round would begin, either the attacker or the defender does not have ships in the System of the Space Battle, the Space Battle ends. If one player still has ships in the System at this point, she is declared the winner of the Space Battle.
1) Pre-Combat
During this phase, all pre-combat effects are resolved.
1.a) Anti-Fighter Barrages
First both sides use the Anti-Fighter Barrage abilities of their involved ships. The combat rolls are performed simultaneously, then the attacker must assign to her Fighters the hits scored by the defender, before the defender does the same with the hits scored by the attacker (see assigning a hit).
1.b) Other Pre-Combat effects
After the Anti-Fighter Barrages, all other pre-combat effects are resolved. All combat rolls granted by these effects are performed simultaneously, then the attacker assigns to her ships the hits scored by the defender, before the defender does the same with the hits scored by the attacker (see assigning a hit).
2) Space Battle Combat Round
2.a) Conduct Combat Rolls
Each ship in the System of the Space Battle performs as many combat rolls as its combat dice characteristic. All dice are rolled simultaneously.
2.b) Assign Hits
First, the attacker must assign to her ships the hits scored by the defender. Then the defender does the same with the hits scored by the attacker.
2.c) Conduct Retreat
Else, the attacker may announce a retreat (see below). Then the defender may choose to immediately conduct a retreat. If the defender does not retreat, the attacker may conduct the announced retreat.
In order to conduct (or announce) a retreat, a player must choose a destination system adjacent to the system of the Space Battle that does not contain enemy ships. When conducting the retreat, the player must move her fleet to the chosen system and place a Command Counter from her reinforcements in it. During this movement, ships with the Capacity ability may pick up units with the Space Cargo trait (like Fighters) but not other units. Ships that may not perform this movement are considered destroyed by the other player.
Exception: If the system of the Space Battle is activated by the player, and the destination system is not (see figure below), the player must spend a Command Counter from Strategy Allocation to retreat.
Invasion Combats
This section details how to resolve Invasion Combats. Invasion Combats are battles on planets, that occur when a player lands ground units on an enemy planet that contains ground units and/or PDSs. The player that landed ground units is the attacker, the other player is the defender.
Like Space Battles, Invasion Combats consist of a Pre-Combat phase, followed by a succession of Combat Rounds that continues as long as both players have ground units on the planet the Invasion Combat is taking place.
Invasion Combat sequence:
- Pre-Combat
- Invasion Combat Combat Round (repeat until the Invasion Combat ends)
End of an Invasion Combat:
If before a Combat Round would begin, either the attacker or the defender does not have ground units on the planet the Invasion Combat is taking place, the Invasion Combat ends:
- If the attacker still has ground units on the planet at this point, she wins the Invasion Combat. The defender’s installations on the planet are destroyed and the attacker takes control of the planet, exhausted.
- Else (if the attacker no longer has ground units on the planet, regardless of whether the defender has any), the defender wins the Invasion Combat. The attacker’s PDSs on the planet are destroyed.
1) Pre-Combat
1.a) Bombardment
Ships with the bombardment (n) ability that have been assigned to bombard this planet in the previous Planetary Landing step bombard it.
Each bombarding ship performs n combat rolls. Sum up the total number of hits scored across all ships. The result is the number of hits the defender must assign to her ground units on the planet.
Bombarding to neutrality:
If the defender is unable to assign all the bombardment hits the planet received (because she did not have enough ground units), the planet turns neutral. The bombarding player may choose to omit this effect.
1.b) Invasion Defence
The units with the Invasion Defence (n) ability defending the planet may perform n combat rolls. The attacker then assigns these hits to the attacking ground units.
2) Invasion Combat Combat Round
2.a) Perform Combat Rolls
Each ground unit on the planet performs as many Combat Rolls as its Combat Dice characteristic. All dice are rolled simultaneously.
2.b) Assign Hits
First, the attacker must assign to her ground unit the hits scored by the defender. Then the defender does the same with the hits scored by the attacker.
Systems
The hexagonal tiles that make up the galaxy map are called Systems.
Content:
- Generalities Regarding Systems
- Home Systems
- Special Systems
- Regular Systems
- Planetary Systems
- Void Systems
Generalities Regarding Systems
Adjoining / Adjacent
- Two Systems are adjoining if their tiles are in physical contact.
- Two Systems are adjacent if they are adjoining, or if they are connected by a Wormholes.
Distance Between Systems
A System that is adjacent to another is 1 space away from this System.
When computing the distance between two Systems, consider the shortest chain of adjacent Systems going from one System to the other.
Control of a System
A player controls a System if she has at least one ship in it and controls all of its planets.
Home Systems (Yellow Borders)
Each player will start the game in the Home System of her race, containing her starting units and planets. By extension, the “Home System of a player” is the Home System of her race.
Special rules:
- During the first Round of a game, players may not activate the Home Systems of other players.
- A player that does not control all the planets of her Home System suffers a -2 Victory Points penalty. This penalty disappears as soon as she takes these planets back.
- At the beginning of the Strategy Phase, players regain control of the planets in their Home System that do not contain any enemy ground unit. These planets are acquired exhausted and installations present on them are captured.
- Unlike other planets, a player does not need to have been in control of the planets of her Home System since the beginning of the Round in order to build Space Docks on them.
Special Systems (Red Borders)
Content:
Asteroid Field
- Ships may not end their movement in an Asteroid Field.
- Ships may not enter and leave an Asteroid Field in the same movement.
- The Space Cannon ability may not fire at units in an Asteroid Field.
Ion Storm
- Ships may not enter and leave an Ion Storm in the same movement.
- The Space Cannon ability may not fire at units in an Ion Storm.
- Fighters in an Ion Storm cannot perform Combat Rolls.
Nebula
- Ships may not enter and leave a Nebula in the same movement.
- Ships inside a Nebula have a movement value of 1 that cannot be increased by any effect.
- During Space Battles in a Nebula, the defender receives +1 to all her Combat Rolls.
Supernova
- Ships may not end their movement in a Supernova.
- Ships may not enter and leave a Supernova in the same movement.
Gravity Rift
Change from base SA (click to expand)
I modified the wordings so that they work and solve common rule questions. The effects are the same however. - "gain +1 movement" -> "does not cost a movement point". Reason: Since only ships that can reach the destination system can move, having effects that give bonus movement to ships that are already moving is backward since they only work if the ship is already moving, i.e. if its movement value was high enough to reach its destination. The correct way to word it is to say that the trajectory costs less movement points to follow than it normally would. - "[facilitated movement] when moving through this system in a non-straight line" -> "[facilitated movement] unless entering and leaving through opposite edges of the tile". Reason: When you think about it, nothing in the rules says anything about the trajectories of ship inside a system. The correct way to word it without introducing definitions is to rely on the physical aspects of the components (the "edges" of the "tile"). Also, this wording makes it clear than the bonus facilitation does not apply when using a wormhole present inside the Gravity Rift.- Moving out of a Gravity Rift right after entering it does not cost a movement point, unless entering and leaving through opposite edges of the tile (or using a wormhole).
- Roll one die for each ship moving through a Gravity Rift. On a roll of 1,2 or 3, the ship ends its move in it, and the System becomes activated (from reinforcement).
If enemy ships are present in the System, the ship is destroyed instead. - Ships in a Gravity Rift do not block enemy movement through the System.
Here is a diagram of the movement costs when moving through a Gravity Rift:
Regular Systems
A Regular System is any System that is neither a Home System nor a Special System. Usually, the majority of the Systems of a galaxy are Regular Systems.
Planetary Systems
A Planetary System is any System that contains at least one planet.
Void Systems
A Void System is any Regular Systems that does not contain any planet or Wormhole.
Planets
Each planet has a resource value (the number on a green background) and an influence value (the number on a red background). Planets may also feature a number of Technology Specialties (red/green/blue/yellow technology symbols), and a Refresh Ability (symbol depending on the actual refresh ability).
Generalities Regarding Planets
Planet Card
Each planet has an associated planet card. When a player takes control of a planet, she takes the corresponding planet card. She release the card when losing control of the planet.
Planet Control
Planets are usually acquired by landing ground units on them during the Planetary Landing step of a Tactical Action, although there are other ways. When a player acquires a planet, the planet is received exhausted (and the planet card is rotated to indicate this fact).
A player does not need to keep ground units on a planet to retain control of it. If no units remain on a controlled planet, its controller must place a flag to indicate she still controls the planet.
Refreshed and Exhausted states
Planets can exist in two states: refreshed and exhausted. When a planet is refreshed, its planet card is upright, and its controller may use it to for example pay the production cost of some units. When a planet is exhausted, its planet card is rotated, and its controller does not get any benefit from it until it is refreshed (which usually happens during the Status Phase).
“Empty Planet”
Technology Specialties
Technology Specialties represent a certain local knowledge or a natural resource important to a specific research field.
Each Technology Specialty on a refreshed planet reduces by 1 (down to a minimum of 0) the cost of purchasing a Technology of the same colour (usually via the Secondary Ability of the Technology Strategy Card), for the controller of the planet.
Refresh Abilities
A Refresh Ability is indicated by a symbol on the right of a planet’s influence value, and is detailed on the associated planet card.
Refresh Abilities can be used during the Refresh Planets step of the Status Phase, by not refreshing the planet.
Facilities
Facilities can be built on planets to increase their resource or influence value.
There are two types of Facilities: Colonies and Refineries. A Colony increases the influence value of the planet it is on by 1, while a Refinery does the same for the resource value.
Facilities are not built for resources. Instead, players may place Facilities on their planets instead of normally refreshing them during the Refresh Planets step of the Status Phase. This is not possible on Home System planets, Trade Stations and planets already containing a Facility.
Once built, place the Facility card under the planet card, with the bottom edge sticking out to display the +1 in either resource or influence.
When a player takes control of a planet containing Facilities, she may destroy some of them. Facilities that are not destroyed stay on the planet.
Note: Facilities are NOT units.
“Turning Neutral”
When a planet “turns neutral” (because of a game effect), all units on it are destroyed, the owner of the planet loses control of it and it becomes neutral.
Trade Stations
Trade Stations are a specific type of planets, with the following special rules:
- No Domain Counter or Natural Wealth may exist on a Trade Station.
- Ground units, installations, Facilities and Leaders may not exist on Trade Stations, and no landing or bombardment may be conducted against them.
- A player takes control of a Trade Station if, at the end of an action, she has ships in its System. She retains control of it even if she stops having ships in the System, until another player takes control of it.
- A player cannot lose control of a Trade Station for any reason if she has ships in its system.
Other Board Elements
Wormholes
Wormholes are spatial anomalies that connect distant areas of space.
Two Systems containing Wormholes of the same type are considered adjacent for all purposes.
Flippable Wormhole tokens
Flippable Wormhole Tokens have a different Wormhole type printed on each side. At the end of an action in which at least one ship moved through such Wormhole from the System containing the Wormhole to another System (and only in this direction), the token is flipped, changing the type of the Wormhole.
Stable Wormhole tokens
Stable Wormhole Tokens have a single type of Wormhole printed on each side. As opposed to their flippable cousins, they do not flip.
Stable Wormholes
A Wormhole is said to be a Stable Wormhole if it was present in the galaxy at the start of the game and is not a Flippable Wormhole. (i.e. Stable Wormholes are Wormholes printed on tiles and Stable Wormhole Tokens)
Border Tokens
Border Tokens are placed on the tile edges between two Systems:
Asteroid Belts
- Ships may not move through Asteroid Belts
- The Space Cannon ability may not fire through Asteroid Belts.
Ion Spheres
- Units may only move through an Ion Sphere as the last part of their movement. Players with the Maneuvering Jets technology may ignore this restriction.
- The Space Cannon ability may not fire through Ion Spheres.
Standing Grav-Waves
- Units may only move through Standing Grav-Wave in the direction indicated by the token.
Collapsed Space-Times
- Units may never move through Collapsed Space-Times.
- The Space Cannon ability may not fire through Collapsed Space-Times.
Space Mines
Space Mines are built by ships with the Deploy Space Mines ability and belong to the player that built them.
When a non-Fighter ship would cross at least one non-friendly Space Mine, its movement is momentarily interrupted. After all the other ships have finished their movement (or got stopped by Space Mines), the owner of the ships must resolve (see below) all the Space Mines that stopped at least one ship, in the order of her choice.
After this step, the movements of the ships resume.
Resolving a Space Mine
When resolving a Space Mine, roll a die for each non-Fighter ship that was stopped by the Space Mine. For each results of 8+, the owner of the ships must assign a hit to one of these non-Fighter ships.
Then remove all (not just the one resolved) non-friendly Space Mines at the same position as the Space Mine just resolved, without resolving them.
Artifacts
There are eight Artifact tokens. Four of them harbor technology colors and are actual Artifacts, while the other four have Trade Goods symbols and are called Dummy Artifacts.
Artifacts may exist on planets or in space, are placed on the galaxy when it is created and may not be moved or destroyed by players.
Controlling Artifacts
- Artifact on a Planet
A player takes control of an Artifact on a planet if she controls the planet at the end of an action. She loses control of it as soon as she loses control of the planet. - Artifact in Space
A player takes control of an Artifact in space if, at the end of an action, she has ships in its System. She retains control of it even if she stops having ships in the System, until another player takes control of it.
Dummy Artifacts
When a Dummy Artifacts is revealed, it is removed from the game and its controller receives 2 Trade Goods.
Artifacts-related Special Objectives
There are four Special Objective awarding Victory Points for the control of the four non-Dummy Artifacts.
Technology Cost Reduction
Artifacts reduce the cost of researching Technologies of their color by 1 (for their controller).
Worldgates
Worldgates are placed on some planets of the galaxy when it is created and may not be moved or destroyed by players.
When a player performs a Tactical Action in a System containing planets with Worldgates, she may, during the Planetary Landing step, move any number of her ground units, PDSs and Leaders from other planets that also contain Worldgates, in unactivated Systems, to these planets. Treat units and Leaders moved this way as if they had been normally landed on the planets.
Domain Counters
Domain Counters are counters placed on planets or in space to represent the dangers and rewards of space exploration and colonization.
There are two types of Domain Counters, the Distant Suns ones have the image of a planet on their back, while the Final Frontier ones have an image of empty space on their back.
Even though the Distant Suns Domain Counters are mostly intended to be placed on planets while the Final Frontier ones are intended to be placed in space, some counters can be placed in both types of locations.
Refer to the Effects of Domain Counters annex to find the effects of all the Domain Counters.
Domain Counters on planets
Domain Counters on planets are resolved after a player lands units on them (and after all units have been landed).
Domain Counters in space
Domain Counters in space are resolved when ships end their movement in the same system (and after all ships have finished their movement). Domain Counters in space are also resolved if a player gets ships in the system through other means than movement.
Taking Control of a Planet with Domain Counters
If a player takes control of a planet without landing units on it, then all Domain Counters on it are removed from the board without being resolved.
Resolving Domain Counters
To resolve the Domain Counters at a location (planet or space), follow these steps:
- Resolve first the red Domain Counters (in the order of your choice).
- Then resolve, as the attacker, the potential Invasion Combat and/or Space Battle (in the order of your choice) against neutral units spawned by these Domain Counters. When assigning hits to their units, they always choose the unit with the highest combat value first (e.g. Fighters before Dreadnoughts).
- Finally, resolve the green Domain Counters (in the order of your choice).
- If during any step above, the units that triggered the Domain Counter resolution are no longer present (for example if they were all destroyed), then the other Domain Counters at the same location are not resolved and stay where they were.
- Remove from the board the resolved Domain Counters.
Custodians of Mecatol Rex
These two Domain Counters have a different appearance and are sometimes used on some galaxies to protect the Mecatol Rex planet from early attacks. In general, they behave exactly like their regular counterpart. One notable exception is that they prevent their planet from being annexed with the Secondary Ability of the Diplomacy Strategy Card.
Spending Resources and Influence
Throughout a game, players will need to spend resources and influence for many different purposes.
Key points:
- In order to pay a certain amount of resources or influence, players must exhaust some of their planets to provide at least as many resources/influence as the required amount (extra resources/influence provided are lost).
- Exhausting a planet provides either as many resources as its resource value, or as many influence as its influence value, but not both. The player controlling the planet decides when exhausting it.
- It is not possible to use only a portion of the resources/influence of a planet when exhausting and save the rest for later. Planets always provides the full values when they are exhausted.
- An exhausted planet may not be exhausted again until it is refreshed by another effect.
- Players may not exhaust their planets outside of paying a cost or being allowed to by another effect.
Command Counters
Each player has a number of Command Counters. They are used for various purposes, which this section will explain. During the game, Command Counters can exist either in a player’s reinforcements, on one of the three dedicated zones of her race sheet, or in systems of the galaxy.
Whenever a player receives or gain a Command Counter, she must place it on her race sheets in one of the three following areas (she chooses which):
Command Counters may not be moved from one area to another, except during the Reallocate Command Counters and Fleet Supply Upkeep step of the Status Phase.
Command Pool
The Command Counters in the Command Pool are used to perform Tactical Actions. If a player does not have any Command Counter in her Command Pool, she may not perform Tactical Actions.
Fleet Supply
Command Counters placed in Fleet Supply must be placed with the “fleet” side up.
The number of Command Counters in a player’s Fleet Supply is her Fleet Supply. A player is said to be in violation of her Fleet Supply in a given System if she has more non-Fighter ships in that System than her Fleet Supply.
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A player may not move or acquire units if that would cause her to violate her Fleet Supply. A player may not plot ship trajectories if the corresponding movements could cause her to violate her Fleet Supply (This can typically happen with Gravity Rift).
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Exception: A player may retreat ships even if that would cause her to violate her Fleet Supply.
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If a player violates her Fleet Supply in a System, she must destroy enough of her non-Fighter ships in that System to comply with her Fleet Supply again. This can for example happen after a retreat or if she removes Command Counters from her Fleet Supply.
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The Fleet Supply constraint is not checked while ships are moving, but is checked right after all ships have finished their movement.
It is important to note that the Fleet Supply is a constraint on the number of non-Fighter ship of fleets, not on the number of fleets. For example, a player with 3 Fleet Supply may have as many fleets as she wants (up to one per System!), but none of these fleets may contain more than 3 non-Fighter ships.
Strategy Allocation
Command Counters in the Strategy Allocation are spent to use various effects. Most notably, the Secondary Abilities of Strategy Cards often require the spending of a Command Counter from Strategy Allocation in order to be executed.
Action Cards
Throughout the game, players will come into possessions of Action Cards that they will add to their hand.
Key Points:
- Timing: Each Action Card has a specified timing at which it can be played, indicated by the “Play:” label.
- “As an Action”: Action Cards with the “As an action” timing are played instead of taking an action during the Action Phase.
- Hand limit: A player may not have more than 7 Action Cards in her hand. If she would exceed this limit by drawing Action Cards, she first draws all her Action Cards, and then discard Action Cards from her hand until she has 7.
- Sabotage: When an Action Card is revealed by a player, but before it starts being resolved, it can be sabotaged by some effects. Sabotaged Action Cards are discarded instead of being resolved and the game resumes as if they had not been played. In particular, playing an “as an Action” Action Card that gets sabotaged does not take an action.
- Effect Location: Each Action Card has a specified effect location, indicating in which System of the galaxy it is played. This information is used by Agents.
- Discard Pile: The discard pile of Action Cards is public. Any player may look at it at any time.
- Private Information: Players may not show the Action Cards from their hand to others unless when playing them.
- Take-backs: After revealing an Action Card to play it, but before resolving it, the player that revealed it may take the Action Card back to her hand without resolving it.
- No Double Play: A player may not play two Action Cards with the same name during the same action.
- Home System Restriction: Action Cards that are normally restricted from being used in Home Systems can still be used if granted permission by the System’s original owner.
Twilight Council and Political Cards
Agendas refer to the Political Cards that were placed in the Twilight Council zone during the Strategy Phase.
The Twilight Council concurs as part of the Assembly (3) Strategy Card Primary Ability.
During this Primary Ability, the active player must choose a number of agendas to be voted on (see the Strategy Card), and select the order in which they will be resolved after being voted on.
Voting
- Each player calculates how many votes she has, by summing the influence values of all her unexhausted planets and potentially adding bonus votes granted by other effects. If a player would have 0 votes, she gets 1 vote.
- Players debate, threaten, lure, bribe or convince each other. Remember that no promises are binding.
- Players take a piece of paper and a pen, and secretly write their votes. They split their votes between the agendas and may not vote for two different outcomes of the same agenda, but they are not required to use all of their votes.
For example, in order to place 3 votes on the FOR outcome of an agenda, a player would write: “: For 3” on her sheet. But she cannot also place votes on the against outcome of the same agenda. - All vote sheets are collected and votes are tallied. Then the agendas are resolved according to the outcome that got the more votes. Finally, resolved agendas are discarded.
Ties
If multiple outcomes of the same agenda receive the same number of votes, the tie is broken by the Speaker.
Exception: an agenda that does not receive any vote is discarded without effect.
Political Cards keywords
Political Cards feature some keywords to indicate how players can vote on them and how they are resolved:
“Elect”
Political Cards with the “elect” keywords ask the player to elect someone or something (depending on the card). The subject getting the most votes will be elected.
“For or Against”
Political Cards with the “For or Against” keyword have only two outcomes: For and Against. The outcome receiving the most votes will be resolved.
“Law”
Political Cards with the “Law” keyword represent permanent changes and will stay active after they were voted on.
Exception: A “For or Against” “Law” of which the Against outcome is resolved does not stay active and is discarded.
Other Rules for Political Cards
- Hand Limit: A player may not have more than 7 Political Cards in hand. If she would exceed this limit by drawing Political Cards, she first draws all her Political Cards, and then discard Political Cards from her hand until she has 7.
- Discard Pile: The discard pile of Political Cards is public. Any player may look at it at any time.
- Private Information: Players may not show the Political Cards from their hand to others.
- Resolution Ambiguities: When resolving a Political Card, if an ambiguity arises as to in which order players should do a given thing, the active player goes first, followed by the other players according to the rotation cycler.
Voice of the Council
After the agendas being voted on and their resolution order have been chosen, any player may spend 1 Command Counter from Strategy Allocation to include the Voice of the Council Special Objective to the agendas being voted on. If no player choose to do so, the game continues.
Voice of the Council is treated as a Political Card with the “elect player” keyword for the duration of the vote (it stops being treated as a Political Card after being resolved). It will always be resolved after the other agendas have been resolved.
The player elected as voice of the council now qualifies for the corresponding objective, until another player is elected voice of the council in a later election.
Note: As for all the Special Objectives (green), Voice of the Council is not claimed instantly after a player qualifies for it.
Technologies
Technologies represent scientific advances the players can acquire (research) throughout the game to strengthen the potential of their race. Technologies are presented in a Technology Tree and can be of one of these four colors, corresponding to four technological domains:
- Blue: Propulsion technologies
- Red: Warfare technologies
- Green: Biotechnologies
- Yellow: Economic technologies
Acquisition of Technologies
Acquisition
Technologies are mostly acquired through the Technology Strategy Card (7). When a player acquires a Technology, she places one of her flags on the corresponding Technology on the Technology Tree and benefit from its effects.
Prerequisites
Some Technologies have other Technologies as prerequisites. This is indicated on the Technology Tree by lines: when two Technologies are connected by a line, the topmost Technology is a prerequisite of the other one. A player cannot acquire a Technology that has prerequisites without having acquired at least one of its prerequisites.
Exception: When a ‘+’ symbol in a red circle is present, both prerequisites are required.
Purchases and Discounts
Some effects allow players to “purchase” Technology for a given resource price. This simply means the player may pay the required amount of resources to acquire a Technology.
This cost is reduced by 1 if the player controls the Artefact of the same color than the purchased Technology, and by 1 for each Technology Specialty of the same color than the purchased Technology present on refreshed planets the player controls.
“You may use the effects of …”
Some effects allow players to “use the effects of” some Technologies. This means that even though they may not have a particular Technology, they are allowed to benefit from its effects. However, they are not considered as having this Technology (for example for the purpose of Objectives, or prerequisites), and even if they do have this Technology, they cannot benefit from its effects twice.
Racial Upgrades
Racial Upgrades are race-specific bonuses and abilities that can be unlocked during the game at the Unlock Racial Upgrades step of the Status Phase.
Trade Goods
When a player receives Trade Goods, she places them into the Trade Good Area of her race sheet. Whenever she spends resources or influence, she can decide to spend some of her Trade Goods as substitutes for one resource or influence each. For example if she wants to spend five resources, she can exhaust Planets for three resources and spend two Trade Goods.
Spent Trade Goods are returned to the common play area.
Players are allowed to give other players Trade Goods from their Trade Good Area at any time. This makes Trade Goods a flexible currency with which to bribe, pay, or assist other players economically.
Trade Contracts and Trade Agreements
Content:
- Trade Contracts
- Opening Trade Agreements
- Difference Between Trade Contract And Trade Agreement
- Receiving Trade Goods From Trade Agreements
- Breaking Trade Agreements
- Self-Trading
- Trading Example
Trade Contracts
Each race has two Trade Contracts, with numerical values printed on one of the sides (the Trade Agreement side). At the beginning of the game, players place these cards face down in their playing area (with the Trade Agreement side facing the table).
Opening Trade Agreements
Some effects (most notably the Primary Ability of the Trade Strategy Card (5)) allow players to open Trade Agreements. When two players want to open a Trade Agreement with each other, they exchange one of their Trade Contracts and flip them (so the Trade Agreement sides are up).
Restriction: two players may not have more than one Trade Agreements with each other at the same time.
Difference between “Trade Contract” and “Trade Agreement”
The “Trade Contracts” of a race are the cards bearing its symbol, while its “Trade Agreements” are the Trade Contracts of other races it received when opening Trade Agreements with them.
Receiving Trade Goods from Trade Agreements
Various effects (most notably the Special Ability of the Trade Strategy Card (5)) “place Trade Goods on active Trade Agreements”. When this happens, players place, on their Trade Agreements, a number of Trade Goods equal to the numerical values of these Trade Agreements.
Various effects (most notably the Primary and Secondary Ability of the Trade Strategy Card (5)) allow players to collect the Trade Goods present on their Trade Agreements and place them in their Trade Goods Area.
Breaking Trade Agreements
There are multiple ways a Trade Agreement can be broken. The most common ones are:
- Any player involved in a Trade Agreement may unilaterally break it during the Scuttle Units And Break Trade Agreements step of the Status Phase.
- At the end of an action during which a player performed a Hostile Act against another, any Trade Agreements between these two players are broken.
When a Trade Agreement is broken, the two players automatically collect some of the Trade Goods present on their Trade Agreements (the rest are discarded), then they flip the cards so that the Trade Agreement sides face the table and finally give the card back to their former trade partner.
How many Trade Goods players collect depends on how the Trade Agreement was broken:
- If it was broken due to a Hostile Act, the player that performed the Hostile Act collects none of the Trade Goods on her Trade Agreements, while her trade partner collects all the Trade Goods on her Trade Agreement.
- If it was broken for any other reason, both players collect half (round down) of the Trade Goods on their Trade Agreement.
Self-Trading
While normally forbidden, some effects allow players to self-trade some of their Trade Contracts. When self-trading a Trade Contract, simply flip it to show the Trade Agreement side and treat it as a Trade Agreement opened with yourself.
Trading Example
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Let us assume Letnev and Sol have opened a Trade Agreement. Letnev gave Sol one of her Trade Contract (value: 1), while Sol returned the favor (value: 2). So at this stage, Letnev has in its playing zone one of Sol’s Trade Contracts with the Trade Agreement side face-up (showing the value of 2), while Sol has one of Letnev’s Trade Contracts (showing the value of 1). Saying the same thing in a different way: Letnev has one of Sol’s Trade Contract as Trade Agreement, and Sol has one of Letnev’s Trade Contract as Trade Agreement.
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Let us assume that an effect placed Trade Goods on the Trade Agreements. So there are 2 Trade Goods on Letnev’s Trade Agreement (Sol’s Trade Contract in Letnev’s playing zone), and 1 Trade Good on Sol’s Trade Agreement (Letnev’s Trade Contract in Sol’s playing zone).
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If Letnev uses an effect allowing her to collect the Trade Goods on her Trade Agreements at this point, she would gain the 2 Trade Goods present on Sol’s Trade Contract.
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If this Trade Agreement would get broken because Sol performs a hostile act against Letnev, Letnev would gain the all the Trade Goods on her Trade Agreement (2), while Sol would gain nothing and discard the Trade Good on her Trade Agreement. They would then exchange back the Trade Contracts and flip them (so the Trade Agreement side faces the table).
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If this Trade Agreement would get broken for another reason, Letnev would gain half round down of the Trade Goods on her Trade Agreement (1), while Sol would also gain half round down of the Trade Goods on her Trade Agreement (0).
Components Limitations
All components, except those listed below, are unlimited. Players can use any reasonable objects to replace them if they would run out.
Supplement cardboard tokens exist for Fighters and Ground Forces.
Limited components:
- Space Docks: 5
- PDSs: 10
- Flagship: 1
- War Suns: 3
- Dreadnoughts: 7
- Carriers: 8
- Cruisers: 12
- Destroyers: 16
- No limit on Fighters
- Armors (a.k.a. Mechanised Units): 8
- No limit on Shock Troops
- No limit on Ground Forces
If a player goes over one of these limits, she must immediately scuttle the units in excess.
Units
Units Characteristics
- categories
- movement value
- resource cost
- production capacity cost
- combat dice
- combat value
- abilities
- traits
Categories
Some effects will refer to categories of units instead of specific unit types. Any unit in a category is affected by effects affecting its category.
Movement Value
This characteristic determines the maximum number of systems the unit can move in a single movement.
More details on units movement can be found in the Ships Movement step of the Tactical Action.
Resource Cost and Production Capacity Cost
These characteristics determine the cost of producing the unit.
More details on how units are produced can be found in the Production step of the Tactical Action.
Combat Dice
This characteristic determines the number of Combat Rolls the unit performs during the combat rounds of Space Battles (if the unit is a ship) or Invasion Combats (if it is a ground unit).
Important: If, after all modifiers have been taken into account, a unit would have zero or less Combat Dice, it is considered as having one Combat Dice instead.
More details on Space Battles and Invasion Combats can be found in the relevant sections.
Combat Value
When a unit performs a Combat Roll, the result of the die is compared to its Combat Value. If the result is higher or equal to the Combat Value, a hit is scored.
More details on Space Battles and Invasion Combats can be found in the relevant sections.
Abilities
Abilities give units unique ways of interacting with the game, like being able to produce other units or being tougher to destroy. Abilities are described in the Unit Abilities section.
Traits
Traits define how units operate and the specific constraints that apply to them.
Unit Categories
Ship
Ships can move by themselves in the galaxy and engage in Space Battles.
Units in this category:
Non-Fighter Ship
Ground Units
The role of these units is to take control of and defend planets, by engaging in Invasion Combats.
Units in this category:
Installation
These units represent buildings that improve planets in various ways, like protecting them, producing units and improving their resource and influence value.
Units in this category:
Units List
- Flagship
- War Sun
- Dreadnought
- Carrier
- Cruiser
- Destroyer
- Fighter
- Armor
- Shock Troop
- Ground Force
- PDS
- Space Dock
Flagship
Note: Each race has a Flagship card specifying the particularities of its Flagship.
- categories: ship, Non-Fighter ship
- movement value: Race-dependant
- resource cost: 10
- production capacity cost: 3
- combat dice: Race-dependant
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combat value: Race-dependant
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abilities:
- Race-dependant
- traits:
War Sun
- categories: ship, Non-Fighter ship
- movement value: 1
- resource cost: 12
- production capacity cost: 3
- combat dice: 3
- combat value: 3
- abilities:
- traits:
- Requires Technology: This unit cannot be produced by a player that has not acquired the War Sun Technology.
Dreadnought
- categories: ship, Non-Fighter ship
- movement value: 1
- resource cost: 5
- production capacity cost: 2
- combat dice: 2
- combat value: 5
- abilities:
- traits:
Carrier
- categories: ship, Non-Fighter ship
- movement value: 1
- resource cost: 3
- production capacity cost: 1
- combat dice: 1
- combat value: 9
- abilities:
- traits:
Cruiser
- categories: ship, Non-Fighter ship
- movement value: 2
- resource cost: 2
- production capacity cost: 1
- combat dice: 1
- combat value: 7
- abilities:
- traits:
Destroyer
- categories: ship, Non-Fighter ship
- movement value: 2
- resource cost: 1
- production capacity cost: 1
- combat dice: 1
- combat value: 9
- abilities:
- traits:
Fighter
- categories: ship
- movement value: NA
- resource cost: 0.5
- production capacity cost: 1
- combat dice: 1
- combat value: 9
- abilities:
- traits:
- Space Cargo: This ship may be picked up and carried by ships with adequate capacity, but is released as soon as the ship carrying it ends its movement.
- Requires Support: The amount of free capacity able to carry units with this trait that a player has in a given System determines the maximum amount of units with this trait she can have in the System. Units in excess must be scuttled. This check is not performed during Space Battles.
Armor (A.k.a. Mechanised Units)
Change from base SA (click to expand)
Renamed "Armor (MU)" into simply "Armor". The "(MU)" marks that they used to be called "Mechanised Units", but I don't think there is a point in making the wordings heavier just to keep this around.- categories: ground unit
- movement value: NA
- resource cost: 2
- production capacity cost: 2
- combat dice: 2
- combat value: 6
- abilities:
- traits:
- Planet-based: This unit is placed on planets and cannot move on its own.
- Cargo: This unit may be picked up, carried, and landed by ships with adequate capacity.
- Bombardment Prone: Bombardment hits must be assigned in priority to units with this trait, which may not sustain them using Sustain Damage.
Shock Troop
- categories: ground unit
- movement value: NA
- resource cost: 2
- production capacity cost: 1
- combat dice: 1
- combat value: 5
- abilities:
- traits:
- Planet-based: This unit is placed on planets and cannot move on its own.
- Cargo: This unit may be picked up, carried, and landed by ships with adequate capacity.
- Frontline Fighters: When assigning hits during an Invasion Combat combat round, they must be assigned in priority to units with this trait.
- Ground Force-like: This unit is treated like a Ground Force by and for all effects applying or referring to Ground Forces in play. The “in play” in the previous sentence typically prevents effects altering the price of Ground Forces from affecting the price of this unit when it is produced.
Ground Force
- categories: ground unit
- movement value: NA
- resource cost: 0.5
- production capacity cost: 1
- combat dice: 1
- combat value: 8
- abilities:
- traits:
- Planet-based: This unit is placed on planets and cannot move on its own.
- Cargo: This unit may be picked up, carried, and landed by ships with adequate capacity.
PDS (Planetary Defence System)
- categories: installation
- movement value: NA
- resource cost: 2
- production capacity cost: 1
- combat dice: NA
- combat value: 6
- abilities:
- traits:
- Planet-based: This unit is placed on planets and cannot move on its own.
- Limited to 2 per planet: a player cannot have more than 2 units of this type on the same planet.
- Cargo: This unit may be picked up, carried, and landed by ships with adequate capacity.
Space Dock
- categories: installation
- movement value: NA
- resource cost: 4
- production capacity cost: NA
- combat dice: NA
- combat value: NA
- abilities:
- Produce Units (n), where n is the resource value of the planet the Space Dock is on plus 2.
- Capacity (3 Fighters)
- traits:
- Unproduceable: This unit cannot be produced using the Produce Units ability.
- Special building process: This unit can be built during the Production step of Tactical Actions. See the description of this step for more details.
- Planet-based: This unit is placed on planets and cannot move on its own.
- Limited to 1 per planet: A player cannot have more than 1 unit of this type on the same planet.
- Exhaustion: This unit can be exhausted by some effects. Flip the unit to indicate this state. When it is exhausted, it cannot use its Produce Units ability. Flip the unit back when it is refreshed (typically during the last step of the Status Phase).
Unit Abilities
This section details the different abilities units can have.
Important:
When a unit receives a numbered ability it already has, the two numbers are summed up. For example, a unit with the Planetary Shield (1) ability receiving the Planetary Shield (1) ability now has the Planetary Shield (2) ability.
Anti-Fighter Barrage (n)
Units with this ability perform n Combat Rolls during the Anti-Fighter Barrage step of the Space Battle sequence, that can only be assigned by the opponent to Fighters.
Bombardment (n)
This ability allows ships that have it to bombard enemy planets. The bombardment process is described in details in the Bombardment step of the Invasion Combat sequence.
Note that some circumstances allow bombardment to take place without an Invasion Combat also taking place.
Capacity (n)
Units with this ability can carry up to n units with the cargo or space cargo trait (see below for the list of these units). Carried units are referred to as the cargo of the unit carrying them.
When a unit with this ability is destroyed, the units it carries are destroyed too.
There are variants of this ability, that limit the types of units that can be carried. For example, a unit with “Capacity (3 Fighters)” can only carry up to 3 Fighters.
When a unit with this ability starts its movement, or enters a System, it may, if the System is unactivated or is the destination System of the movement, pick up carry-able units from:
- Friendly planets in the System
- The cargo of other friendly units in the System
In addition, units with this ability in the destination system may freely transfer carried units between them.
Carry-able units:
Capture Installations
When a player takes control of a planet while having a unit with this ability on it, she may capture all installations on it.
Captured Space Docks are exhausted.
Commando
Before the first combat round of an Invasion Combat, the attacker may assign some of her units with this ability as Commando. These units do not participate in combat rounds, and are destroyed by the defender if the attacker loses the Invasion Combat. If she wins, each Commando unit can capture an enemy installation on the planet.
Captured Space Docks are exhausted.
Deep Space Cannon (n)
This ability is the combination of the Space Cannon (n) ability with the bonus that it has range to adjacent systems (but cannot fire through wormholes).
Deploy Space Mines (n)
During the Production step of a Tactical Action, the active player may deploy a number of Space Mines in the just activated System up to the number of Deploy Space Mines abilities her units in the System have (in most cases, Space Mines will be deployed by Cruisers, each of them being able to deploy 2). Each Space Mine costs 2 resources and must be placed on one of the edges of the System. Place a flag of the active player on each Space Mine built to indicate their ownership.
Invasion Defence (n)
Units with this ability perform n Combat Rolls against attacking ground units during the Pre-Combat step of an Invasion Combat on their planet.
Planetary Shield (n)
When a planet containing a unit (controlled by the controller of the planet) with this ability is bombarded, n bombardment hits are cancelled.
Pre-Combat Shot (n)
Units with this ability perform n Combat Rolls during the Other Pre-Combat effects step of the Space Battle sequence.
Produce Units (n)
See the Production step of a Tactical Action.
Shock Troop Upgrade
After a player wins an Invasion Combat Invasion Combat as the attacker and takes control of the planet, one of her surviving units with this ability on the planet may be replaced with a Shock Troop.
Space Cannon (n)
Units with this ability can shoot at ships in their system during the Space Cannon Abilities step of Tactical Actions. Look at the description of this step for more details.
Sustain Damage (n)
A unit with this ability may be assigned more than one hit during Space Battles and Invasion Combats. It may be assigned a total of n hits without being destroyed, and is destroyed if one more hit is assigned to it. For each hit sustained this way, a unit loses a combat dice (up to a minimum of one die) and rolls one less die when bombarding (up to a minimum of one die) until it is repaired, which usually happens during the Status Phase. Dice losses due to this ability are applied after other game effects granting/removing dice. Hit Counters (see next picture) can be used to represent the damages sustained.
Leaders
Each race starts the game with 3 Leaders, great personalities with powerful abilities. There are 5 types of Leaders, each with their own set of abilities.
General Leader Rules
This section explains the general rules that apply to all Leaders.
Movement
- Similarly to a ground unit, a Leader is always on a planet or being carried by a ship. Any ship may carry one or more Leaders, using 0 capacity.
- The owner of a Leader may freely move it within its System during her actions, unless the System contains enemy ships, or she is currently resolving a Tactical Action step. This means that a Leader can be moved between the resolution of two consecutive Tactical Action steps, but not while a step is resolved.
- Leaders may use any effect allowing the movement of friendly ground units, without counting towards the number of ground units moved.
- A Leader may not land on a non-friendly planet without being accompanied by ground units.
Fate Roll
When a ship carrying a Leader is destroyed, or when a Leader is present on a non-friendly planet without accompanying friendly ground units, remove that Leader from the board. At the end of the current action, conduct a Fate Roll (roll a D10 and look at the following table) to determine its new location.
Fate Roll Table:
- 1: Killed
- 2-7: Captured
Note: “Captured” requires enemy control of the planet or space where the Leader was situated. If these circumstances do not apply, treat this result as Escape Instead. - 8-10: Escape
When Killed, the Leader is removed from the game entirely.
Captured:
When Captured, the Leader becomes a captive, and the captor places one of her flags on the captive to denote this. A captive is considered as a Leader with no abilities, and may only be moved by the captor (as if it was one of her own Leaders). A captive that would be Captured by its original owner Escapes instead.
Escape:
Upon Escape, the original owner of the Leader may place it back in play at any of her planets or ship. A captive that Escapes stops being a captive and regain its abilities.
Executions and Releases
During the Status Phase, captives may be released or executed by their captor. The released captives Escape, while the executed captives are Killed. The captor must then exhaust or lose control of a planet for each captive she executed
Leader Abilities
Note: Leader abilities with an * do not stack between multiple Leaders of the same type. For example, your ground units fighting with two Generals only receive +1 to their combat rolls, not +2.
Admiral
- Fire Control: A ship carrying Admiral(s) has one extra combat die.*
- Astrogation: A Dreadnought carrying an Admiral has +1 movement.*
- Withdrawal: Retreating a fleet with an Admiral uses a Command Counter from reinforcements.
Diplomat
- Grant Passage: A Diplomat may let fleets move through each other in its system if their owners agree. The Diplomat can do this while moving.
- Ceasefire: A Diplomat may let defending fleets in its system retreat before the Space Battle step if the attacker agrees.
- Objection: A Diplomat may cancel enemy landing and bombardment on its planet, unless the attacker spends 6 influence, in which case the Diplomat escapes. You may not use this ability on the same planet this round or the next.
General
- Inspiration: Ground units with a General receive +1 to combat rolls during Invasion Combats.*
- Tactics: A General may re-roll 2 friendly combat rolls (or the same twice) per Invasion Combat combat round.*
- Fortification: Bombardment rolls against a planet with a General receive -3.*
Agent
- Infiltration: An army invading with an Agent cannot be shot at by PDSs, and captures PDSs and Space Docks when winning (they still count as ‘destroyed’ for objectives).
- Sabotage: An Agent at the effect location of an Action Card just played may cancel it. “Scattered effects” are only cancelled in the Agent’s system. Cooldown: this round and the next.
- Capture: An Agent in Space Battle or Invasion Combat may capture enemy Leaders who would make fate rolls.
Scientist
- Analysis: A Scientist doubles the discount from a technology specialty or Artifact on its planet (or in space if on a ship) that is not doubled by another Scientist.
- Architect: A Scientist reduces the resource cost of building Space Docks on its planet by 1.*
- Ballistics: PDSs on planets with a Scientist receive +1 Planetary Shield and +1 to combat rolls.*
- Eureka: Before acquiring a Technology, a Scientist may exhaust its planet, if it has a technology specialty, to skip a pre-requisite of the same color.
Surrender and Elimination
Sometimes a player does not want to (surrender) or cannot (elimination) continue playing. This section explains how to deal with these situations. Additionally, the armistice procedure provides a way to amicably settle a game without playing it out to the end.
Surrender
When passing during the Action Phase, a player who wish to stop playing may surrender to leave the game. After this happens, the surrendering player may not act in the game anymore and her next Status Phase is skipped (she can leave the table). Follow this procedure at the end of the round:
- Victory Point penalty: The surrendering player loses 2 Victory Points. This penalty does not stack with the one from the non-control of all the planets in the Home System.
- Identify the Capital Planet:
At each of these substeps, ties are broken in favour of the planet with the highest resource value worth of ground units and PDS on it, and in case there is still a tie, by choosing one at random- If she controls at least one planet with a Space Dock in her Home System, the one with the highest combined resource and influence is the capital planet.
- Else, if she controls at least one planet with a Space Dock, the one with the highest combined resource and influence is the capital planet.
- Else, the planet with the highest combined resource and influence is the capital planet.
- Garrison the Capital Planet:
The surrendering player receives Ground Forces on the capital planet until either 3 Ground Forces were added or there are at least 5 ground units. - Remove all Space Docks, except the one on the capital planet (if any)
- Remove the Flagship (if it is on the board)
- Remove all Leaders, except the captives
In the rest of the game, if one of these captives would escape, it is removed from the game instead. -
Bidding on the fleets and planets of the surrendering player:
Starting with the Speaker and following the Rotation Cycler (ignoring the surrendering player), each player will choose a fleet or planet (except the capital planet) of the surrendering player that will be bid upon.After a fleet or planet has been chosen, starting with the player that chose and following the Rotation Cycler (again, ignoring the surrendering player), each player may either place a bid of influence or withdraw from this bidding. Repeat this until only one player has not withdrawn: this player wins this bidding. The winner of a bidding must spend as many influence as her bid, and takes control of the fleet or planet (including the units on it, but exhausted) that was bid upon.
Note that the player that chose must place a bid on her first turn (but she can bid 0), and that no player may place a bid she could not afford to pay later. Also, as an exception to the Fleet Supply rule, players are allowed to take control via this process of a fleet that would put them in violation of their Fleet Supply (they still have to destroy ships to comply with Flet Supply afterwards).Repeat this process until all the fleets and planets (except the capital planet) of the surrendering player have been attributed to other players.
-
Elimination:
Finally, the surrendering player is eliminated (follow the elimination procedure), with the exception that the Trade Agreements she had with other players stay open until the capital planet is lost (or until her trade partners perform Hostile Acts against the capital planet).
Note: The capital planet and its units (until they are taken over or destroyed) are to be considered by the remaining players as belonging to an opponent that has the same technologies, racial abilities and racial upgrades the surrendering player had. They systematically use any effects they have to, but none that are optional, except the Space Cannon ability which they use whenever they can.
Elimination
If at the end of an action or during the Status Phase, a player does not control any planet or unit, she is eliminated:
- All her Action Cards, Political Cards, Trade Goods and Command Counters are discarded. Her Secret Objective(s) in hand are not discarded and stay secret.
- Trade Agreements opened with her are broken and may never be re-opened.
- If she was the Speaker, the next player in the Rotation Cycler order becomes the Speaker.
- If she had a Strategy Card, she immediately returns it, even if it was not played yet.
- She is ignored by all effects
- The game now has one fewer players, so some rules adjustments based on the number of players may come into play. See the section dedicated to these rules.
Note: The Home System of an eliminated player is still considered as the Home System of an opponent by the remaining players. This means in particular that objectives requiring to control planets in an opponent’s Home System can be claimed with the Home System of an eliminated player.
Armistice (Experimental)
It may happen that a player is almost guaranteed to win, and that other players do not see a way to stop her, but the game would still technically require to be played out. When this happens, the following rule can be used to cut the game short. It simulates an amicable settlement of the end game.
At any point during the game, if all players agree, you can follow these steps to end the game immediately. All players must agree on all decisions made during this procedure for the armistice to be valid.
- Choose a player to be the winner of the game. She is awarded enough Victory Points to reach the Victory Point goal.
- The winner can award Victory Points to any remaining players, up to a total amount of awarded Victory Points equal to the number of players.
- The remaining players may cede Victory Points to each other.
- If all players agree on the final result, the game is over. If no agreement can be reached, it continues as normal.
The maximum number of Victory Points any non-winning player can have is 2 Victory Points less than the winner.
Miscellaneous Rules
-
When an effect asks a player to place a Command Counter in a System in which she already has a Command Counter, do not add a second Command Counter.
-
When a player controls a planet without having any units on it, she should place a flag on it so that other players do not mistake the planet as being neutral.
General Definitions
-
- Activated System
A System is considered activated by a player when it contains a Command Counter from that player, preventing her units in it from acting again until the Command Counter is removed. However, most effects simply refer to activated and unactivated Systems without specifying any player, in which case the player is the one using the effect. - Activated Planet
A planet is activated by a player when it is in a System activated by that player. - Activated Unit
A unit is activated when it is in a System activated by its owner.
- Activated System
-
Adjacent/Adjoining
See here. -
Army
All the ground units a given player has on the same planet form an army. - Blockade
A player blockades enemy planets when she is the only player having ships in the System of the planets. By extension, she also blockades all units present on these planets. - Border
Systems are hexagonal tiles, whenever two Systems share an edge, this edge is a border. Note:
This implies that wormholes are not borders. - Combat Roll
See here. - Controlling a System
See here. - Capture
Some effects allow a player to capture enemy units . When this happens, replace them with your own. Captured Space Dock are immediately exhausted. - Empty Planet
See here. - Enemy
Enemy units and planets are those that are controlled by other players. - Fleet
All the ships a given player has in the same System form a fleet. - Friendly
Friendly units and planets are those you control. - Ground Unit
See here. -
Hostile Act
When a player:- Is the attacker in a Space Battle against another player.
Or - Either lands ground units on or assigns units to bombard an enemy planet.
She is said to have performed a Hostile Act against the player controlling the enemy ships or planet.
- Is the attacker in a Space Battle against another player.
-
Hostile Action
When a player performs an action in which she performs one or more Hostile Acts against a player, she is said to have performed a Hostile Action against this player. - Inflicting A Hit
See here. - Installations
See here. - Invasion
See here. - Killing a Leader
A player is said to have killed a leader if she either:- Executed that leader.
- Destroyed through combat roll the ship the leader was on, and the ensuing fate roll was a 1.
- Took control of the planet the leader was on, and the ensuing fate roll was a 1.
- Natural Wealth
Some effects place Trade Goods working “as Natural Wealth”. Refer to the effect of the Natural Wealth Domain Counter. - Neutral
Neutral units and planets are those that are not controlled by any players. - Reinforcements
The reinforcements of a player designate the area in which she keeps all her unused / destroyed units and tokens. - Recycling
Recycling a card means discarding it and drawing a new one of the same type. - Rotation Order
A procedure occurring in Rotation Order will start with the Speaker and continue around the table with the other players in the orientation of the Rotation Cycler. - “Scoring A Hit”
See here. - Scuttle
Scuttling a unit means removing it from the board and placing it back in its owner’s reinforcement. - Ship
See here. - Speaker
The player holding the Speaker Token is referred to as the Speaker. - Stable Wormhole
See here. - “You may use the effects of” (a Technology)
See here.
Rule Adjustments Based On The Number Of Players
8 players
- The 9th Strategy Card, Prospect, is used.
7 players
- The 9th Strategy Card, Prospect, is used.
5 players
- At the end of the Strategy Phase, randomly select an unpicked Strategy Card and remove the newly placed Bonus Counter from the card. In the Action Phase, as soon as its initiative value is reached, execute the card as if played by no player: Primary Ability has no effect, but Secondary Abilities and Special follow as normal. For the purpose of effects interacting with unpicked Strategy Cards, it is considered picked.
4 players
- The 9th Strategy Card, Prospect, is used.
- Players pick TWO Strategy Cards instead of one during the Strategy Phase (they still pick one card at a time). The initiative of a player with multiple Strategy Cards is the lowest number among all of her Strategy Cards.
- Players may self-trade ONE of their Trade Agreements.
- During the Strategy Phase, after all Agendas have been revealed, reveal additional Political Cards from the deck so that there are 5 revealed Agendas in the Twilight Council area. If some of these agendas are not voted on during the Action Phase, they are discarded during the Status Phase.
3 players
- Players pick TWO Strategy Cards instead of one during the Strategy Phase (they still pick one card at a time). The initiative of a player with multiple Strategy Cards is the lowest number among all of her Strategy Cards.
- Players may self-trade BOTH of their Trade Agreements.
- During the Strategy Phase, after all Agendas have been revealed, reveal additional Political Cards from the deck so that there are 5 revealed Agendas in the Twilight Council area. If some of these agendas are not voted on during the Action Phase, they are discarded during the Status Phase.
2 players
Strategy and Status Phase
- Players pick THREE Strategy Cards instead of one during the Strategy Phase (they still pick one card at a time). The initiative of a player with multiple Strategy Cards is the lowest number among all of her Strategy Cards.
- During the Strategy Phase, after all Agendas have been revealed, reveal additional Political Cards from the deck so that there are 5 revealed Agendas in the Twilight Council area. If some of these agendas are not voted on during the Action Phase, they are discarded during the Status Phase.
- Players gain one fewer Command Counter during the Status Phase.
Trade
- Players may self-trade BOTH of their Trade Agreements.
- The option b) of the Trade Strategy Card may not be used.
Assembly
- The option a) of the Assembly Strategy Card (3) can be used to select your own agenda if you also select your opponent’s agenda.
- The option b) of the Assembly Strategy Card (3) also grants +3 votes to the active player.
- When the Assembly (3) Strategy Card is played, after agendas have been chosen for voting:
- Each player rolls three dice and gains as many votes as the lowest of his results.
- Each player may secretly spend Trade Goods to gain the same number of votes. Players should write the amount of Trade Goods spent alongside their votes, then immediately spend them after votes are revealed.
Objectives
- Players are not dealt Secret Objectives during the setup.
- The Sovereign and Imperial Special Objectives are not in play.
- No Preliminary Objective is revealed during the setup.
- The Voice of the Council Special Objective only gives +3 votes instead of +5.
Action Cards and Political Cards
- When drawing an Action Card or Political Card with the “2pX” symbol, it must be recycled immediately.
Race-specific changes
- Every other time Mentak uses their racial ability to steal Trade Goods, they gain a Trade Good.
- When Xxcha plays the Diplomacy Strategy Card, they may spend 1 Command Counter from Strategy Allocation and 2 influence to execute the Primary Ability a second time.
Annex 1: Effects of Domain Counters
For the general rules regarding Domain Counters, see the Domain Counter section.
Note: All units created by Domain Counters are treated as regular units for all intents and purposes.
Peaceful Annexation
The local civilization accepts the annexation into your galactic empire.
Discard this counter.Void Space
Your ships travel deep into space, silently passing thousands of dead and empty planets. No unusual event occur.
Discard this counter.Hidden Factory
Your exploratory units have unearthed an ancient, abandoned starship factory.
You may produce ships for up to two production capacity in the system. One of the resources spent comes for free.Native Intelligence
The local civilization offers their allegiance and share their research about distant stars.
Secretly look at any face down Domain Counter on the board.Abandoned Freighters
An abandoned fleet of freighters drift in dead space, with cargo intact. The whereabouts of the crew remains a mystery.
Receive 2 Trade Goods.Uncharted Habitats
Amidst the dark between the stars you discover an advanced, self sustaining society previously not earlier registered in galactic records.
Leave this counter in the system. It is treated as a Trade Station of 0 resource and 1 influence (no refresh ability). Take a Colony card to represent this habitat. It is not considered as a planet or a Trade Station for Objectives.Ship Graveyard
Remnants of a once great battle rests solemnly in space. Some of the ships may be repaired or looted for fuel and supplies.
Produce one ship in the system for half its resource cost (round down) or receive one Command Counter in your Fleet Supply. This ship may not be a War Sun or a Flagship.Discovery
The venture through uncharted space has provided you with advantageous discoveries.
Gain one Action Card or one Command Counter.Natural Wealth
The planet is rich on ore, gas, vegetation and other natural resources that can be extracted relatively easily.
Place the indicated number of Trade Goods on the planet, that will work as Natural Wealth: if they control the planet, players may take one at the end of their Tactical Actions in the system and during the Refresh Planet step of the Status Phase.
Natural Wealth Trade Goods at the same location but from multiple sources are merged into a single stack.Industrial Society
An industrious and friendly populace welcomes your empire. With your help, they will soon be able to construct ships for interstellar travel.
Receive a free (exhausted) Space Dock on this planet.
If you are the Saar, gain 2 Trade Goods instead.Technological Legacy
The populace of this planet harbours relics and remnants of ancient Lazax technology.
Receive one technology for which you have the needed pre-requisites, chosen by the player on your left.Alien Technology
Strange, alien technology are identified in the system. After careful research, it reveals marvellous technological secrets your scientists cannot fully reproduce.
Leave this counter face-up in place for the remainder of the game. It is no longer treated as a Domain Counter but is controlled as if it was an Artifact. Any player taking control of this counter may choose one Technology and utilize its effect as long as they maintain control of this counter.Lazax Survivors
The signs of intelligent life you detected turned out to be the very descendants of the great Lazax themselves.
Leave this counter face-up in place for the remainder of the game. It is no longer treated as a Domain Counter but is controlled as if it was an Artifact. The player controlling this counter receives +3 votes.Neutron Radiation
The entire landing force is exposed to an intense pulsation of ionizing radiation. No survivors are reported.
Place this counter on the planet’s card. It is no longer a Domain Counter. When a planet whose card containg Neutron Radiation counters would get refreshed, cancel that refresh and remove one counter from it instead.Settlers
Pioneers from one of the Great Races have already settled on the planet.
Roll a die to determine a random opponent, who places two Ground Forces on the planet and claim it. The active player may cancel her landing on this planet (this also cancels bombardment). Units/Leaders unable to go back to where they came from are destroyed/make Fate Rolls.Gravity Rift
Your ships head into the midst of an uncharted gravity rift!
Leave this counter in the system and treat it as a Gravity Rift while the counter is present.
Remove the counter at the end of the first action in which a ship has been trapped by this Gravity Rift.Wormhole Discovery
Investigating an anomaly in the sector reveals unexpected wormhole activity.
Leave this counter in the system. Treat the system as having an unstable wormhole of the indicated type.Space Pirates
Ruthless vagabond roam the galaxy to prey on the wealthy and the weak.
Choose either:
- Pay 2 Trade Goods and remove this counter.
- Spawn a neutral Dreadnought in the system for this action. When the action ends, if no player has units where this counter was, place it back. Otherwise, this player gains 2 Trade Goods.Fighter Ambush
Sensors detect a myriad of small, unidentified ships approaching at high velocity.
Spawn the indicated number of neutral Fighters in the system for this action. When the action ends, if no player has units where this counter was, place it back.Sudden Collision
In the dead of space, unidentified objects slam into the hull and cargo area of your ships.
Inflict a hit on one of your ships in the system or lose one unit carried by one of them. If you have the Antimass Deflectors technology, ignore this effect.Bio-Hazard
While attempting to terraform the planet, millions perish due to influence highly aggravating toxins.
Inflict one hit on the landing army. If no ground units remain to claim the planet, leave this counter in place.Hostile Locals
All forms of Diplomacy with the local civilization have failed.
Spawn the indicated number of neutral Ground Forces on this planet for this action. When the action ends, if no player has units where this counter was, place it back.Automated Defence
Powerful laser beams soar through the atmosphere of the planet and cut into the hull of your ships.
Spawn 2 neutral PDSs on this planet for this action. They immediately fire (using Space Cannon) once each at any player fleet in the system. These PDSs cannot be captured. When the action ends, if no player has units where this counter was, place it back. Otherwise, this player gains a PDS there.Hostiles and Natural Wealth
The planet is abundant with natural resources, but the local populace will defend it at all costs.
Roll one die and divide the result by two (round down). Replace this counter with both a Hostile Locals and a Natural Wealth Domain Counter of this value.Annex 2: Variants and Optional Rules
Content:
- Covert Objectives (complete version, beta)
- Covert Objectives (light version, beta)
- Path of Fate (Race Specific Objectives)
- Simultaneous Tactical Action System
- Ascendancy
- Star by Star
Covert Objectives (complete version, beta)
Description
The Covert Objective Mod is an in-development mod that adds a new type of objectives (Covert Objectives) as light Secret Objectives, focused on agression. These objectives are acquired through a variant of the Bureaucracy Strategy Card. This mod uses an alternative Public Objective deck with much more peaceful objectives, and the injection of these into the game is now done through Assembly.The main idea of this mod was to reduce the amount of dealing that was happening when an agressive public objective was drawn (like: “I’ll let a Ground Force on this planet for you to claim this objective against me if you do …”), as well as reducing the intuitive turtling reaction that would follow the revelation of objectives like “Destroy an enemy Space Dock”. So with this mod, aggressive objectives should hopefully be claimed in an actual aggressive fashion and encourage a more dynamic and proactive behaviour.
Setup (All the assets are available on the Shattered Ascension website)
- Replace the standard Stage I Public Objective Deck with the alternative version provided by this variant.
- Replace the standard Bureaucracy Strategy Card with the alternative version provided by this variant.
- Shuffle the Covert Objectives deck.
- Each player draws a Covert Objective.
- There are no Stage II Public Objectives
Rules
- Covert Objectives must be kept secret until claimed or discarded.
- During the Status Phase, a player may claim a Covert Objective from his hand instead of a Public Objective
- Players may not have more than 2 Covert Objectives in hand. If they have more they must discard down to 2.
- After agendas have been revealed during the Strategy Phase, draw a Public Objective and add it to the Twilight Council Area as an additional agenda that must be included into voting as a For/Against agenda if the Assembly Strategy Card is played:
- If the objective is voted For, put it into play
- If the objective is voted Against, put it at the bottom of the deck
- If no votes are cast on the objective, place it at the top of the deck
- When a Covert Objective is discarded, keep it face down and shuffle it back into the deck
Generalities
- If an objective refers to a system that is not in play, recycle it.
- Only deeds from the current round count towards Covert Objectives unless otherwise specified.
- Players are advised to keep the units they destroy during the round on their race sheets to make it easier to verify Covert Objective claims.
Covert Objectives (light version, beta)
Description
This is an attempt at providing a lighter implementation of the complete Covert Objectives variant.Setup
- Shuffle the Covert Objectives deck
Rules
- At the end of each Status Phase, each player draws a Covert Objective (without showing it).
- Players may not have more than 2 Covert Objectives in hand. If they have more they must discard down to 2.
- In the Claim Objectives step of the Status Phase, players may claim a Covert Objective if they do not also claim a Secret (or racial) Objective.
- When executing the Secondary Ability of the Bureaucracy Strategy Card, players may draw a Covert Objective instead of gaining the Trade Good.
- When a Covert Objective is discarded, keep it face down and shuffle it back into the deck
Path of Fate (Race Specific Objectives)
Each player is dealt her three Race-Specific Objective cards. Only one of these can be scored during each game (during the Objectives step of the Status Phase), but cannot be scored simultaneously with a Secret Objective.
Simultaneous Tactical Action System
The Simultaneous Tactical Action System is an optional rule allowing players to perform Simultaneous Tactical Actions when they could otherwise perform Tactical or Strategic Actions.
Simultaneous Tactical Action sequence:
- Activate as many systems as desired. However, activating a system that does not contain friendly ships or Space Docks costs 2 Command Counters instead of 1.
- Conduct the rest of the Tactical Action Sequence in each activated system, completing each step in all systems before proceeding to the next step. For each step, the active player chooses in which order the activated systems conduct that step.
Note: During a Simultaneous Tactical Action, all ships present in systems activated during this action may move out of them, regardless of the order in which these systems conduct the movement step. Similarly, units may be picked up from all of these systems.
Ascendancy
Todo
Star by Star
Todo